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Overview - Every year, Ceyala "Lala" Reyes' family--aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, and Lala's six older brothers--packs up three cars and, in a wild ride, drive from Chicago to the Little Grandfather and Awful Grandmother's house in Mexico City for the summer.Read more...

Every year, Ceyala "Lala" Reyes' family--aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, and Lala's six older brothers--packs up three cars and, in a wild ride, drive from Chicago to the Little Grandfather and Awful Grandmother's house in Mexico City for the summer. Struggling to find a voice above the boom of her brothers and to understand her place on this side of the border and that, Lala is a shrewd observer of family life. But when she starts telling the Awful Grandmother's life story, seeking clues to how she got to be so awful, grandmother accuses Lala of exaggerating. Soon, a multigenerational family narrative turns into a whirlwind exploration of storytelling, lies, and life. Like the cherished "rebozo," or shawl, that has been passed down through generations of Reyes women, Caramelo is alive with the vibrations of history, family, and love.

This national bestseller, based on the author's childhood experiences, is the story of teenage Celaya, known as Lala, the youngest member of the Reyes clan. Surrounded by her six rowdy brothers, Lala struggles to find an identity within her large, exuberant family, which includes her iron-willed grandmother in Mexico City. When the family makes its yearly trek from Chicago to Mexico by car to pay her grandmother a visit, Lala ends up connecting in ways she hadn't expected with her elderly relative, who comes from a long line of shawl, or caramelo, makers. Listening to her grandmother's anecdotes inspires Lala to spin her own tales about the family, making the novel both a coming-of-age story and a multi-generational saga. Poignant and beautifully rendered, Cisneros' book offers an eloquent portrait of a modern-day Mexican-American family. A reading group guide is available at www.vintagebooks.com/read.

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